Don’t push the pink skins to the thin ice

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prelude_to_Axanar_poster.jpg

There’s an amazing Star Trek fan film, Prelude To Axanar, that was squashed by Paramount not too long ago.

The film brings up two points; one in the real-world sense, and one taken from the fictional realm.

The first, is that a dedicated group of people who care about what they are doing can make some very impressive art. When you watch the film, you feel like you’ve been transported to a real-life documentary about a war that happened “not too long ago”, perhaps like a documentary on the Vietnam War. For the amount of money they spent, they created something real, lifelike, and certainly true to what Gene Roddenberry intended, and perhaps even more. When one recalls all the horrible science fiction films that have been created with huge budgets, you can see that it is a lack of caring that probably sinks these films, not the budget. When you care, you can create masterpieces out of (practically) thin air.

The second, from the fictional realm of the film, was a great line made by a Vulcan ambassador (around 7:24), in reference to an “Andorian acquaintance” who made the comment “Don’t push the pink skins to the thin ice.” The essence of this was that when “on the ropes” humans will fight back with an incredible tenacity. Mish Shedlock, recently wrote something that echoes along these lines on his blog. When pushed to the edge, who knows what will happen? Let’s hope calmer and wiser heads prevail. As Jenny Holzer once wrote in an art piece, “People won’t behave if they have nothing to lose.”

Questions:

What are some examples of amazing art made a on shoestring budget? Amazing pieces of engineering?

Backing people into a corner, in many (but not all) endeavors, is generaly not a prudent move. But it always seems to happen, and the people who push too hard can sometimes find out the hard way that this wasn’t a brilliant plan. How can this be avoided? What are some of the hallmarks of getting what you want, without having an opponent “go berserker“?